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Reduce the Risk of Laptop Theft A laptop's greatest asset—its portability—is also its greatest
liability. The Journal addressed ways to prevent laptop theft
in the June 1997 monthly
checklist . Now there's a device you can use to prevent your
laptop from becoming one of 2,000 stolen each day—a theft alarm.

The Manta Intelligent Security alarm is three-quarters of an inch
thick and attaches directly to your laptop with a cement glue, serving
as a visual deterrent to would-be thieves. The device, which can be
programmed to respond to motion or loss of power, emits a low growling
noise as an initial warning and then switches to a piercing
120-decibel alarm that lasts up to seven hours unless disabled by the
owner's code. Armed by pressing a single button, it is disarmed by
entering a seven-digit code.

The Manta's motion detector makes this a practical device for
business travelers who take their laptops into airports and hotels.
Unplugging the laptop from a wall outlet or another computer without
first inputting the code also triggers the alarm. A long-lasting
rechargeable battery is included.

A Service Station for Your Computer Windows 95 users can join an online service, TuneUp, that offers
virus protection, access to technical support reference materials and
upgrades from previous versions of TuneUp.

TuneUp is a subscription-based Internet stop that acts as a
"service station" for your computer—to keep it running
smoothly. Subscribers receive a virus detection and removal service
and hard-drive diagnosis and repair software. Also available are PC
tips and articles and a technical directory with listings from 2,900
computer companies, including support phone numbers and links to their
Web sites.

Dictating to the Computer I'm composing this article at my computer [ period ].
Which may not sound very unusual [ dash ]—except I'm not
typing it on a keyboard [ colon ]: I'm dictating these words
into a microphone at a normal speed, and the computer is transcribing
my voice and [ quote ] "typing [ close quote
]" the words onto the screen a second or two after I utter
them [ period ]. [ new paragraph ] Wow [
exclamation point ]! [ new paragraph ]
The program I'm using is called dragon [ strike that ]
[ cap d Dragon ] Dragon NaturallySpeaking [ comma ],
which sells for about [ dollar sign ] $200 [ period
]. [ go to sleep ]

That last command ("go to sleep") shuts down the program.
As I'm a fast typist, I can type slightly faster than
NaturallySpeaking—but not by much. And since I'm not personally
comfortable dictating, I've reverted to the keyboard. But those of you
who do not touch-type or who are more comfortable dictating a letter
or a report may find that NaturallySpeaking suits your needs.

I've experimented with voice-activated software since it first
appeared on the market nearly a decade ago. None was effective. Not
only were my words misunderstood much of the time, but for any clarity
I had to speak...like...this: (a short pause between each word). Try
that for a few minutes and your throat gets scratchy.

You can speak naturally with NaturallySpeaking. The commands, for
punctuation and for fixing errors, are mostly intuitive. Before you
begin dictating, however, you must train the program to recognize your
unique voice and pronunciation—a 30-minute process. The program types
the correct word most of the time and can differentiate sound-alike
words easily.

For the program to work effectively, keeping pace with a normal
speaking rate, you'll need a relatively powerful computer with a sound
card. I'm using a 200-megahertz Pentium Pro with a 32-bit Sound
Blaster card. The program runs more slowly on a computer with less
power.